India
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Sajjan Kumar dies in jail during parole listing
Times of India··23 Aug
On 20 August 2026, former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar died at Safdarjung Hospital while serving life sentences in Tihar Jail in two 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases. Delhi Prisons said he had been sent for general OPD care for hypertension, cataract and Parkinson's disease. His Supreme Court parole plea listing was scheduled for the same Thursday.
Prism
What It Means For You
- If you follow the 1984 riot files, Kumar's death ends the two life sentences he was serving, but it does not by itself close every related appeal on the Delhi docket.
- Anyone watching the parole listing should note the Supreme Court item was scheduled for 20 August, the same day he was declared dead at the hospital.
- If you read only one age, Tihar recorded him as 80 and Safdarjung as 84, so the official papers do not yet match.
What's Happening
- Safdarjung said he arrived around 11 am with altered sensorium, that resuscitation was tried, and that death was recorded at 12.30 pm, while prisons put the time at 12.20 pm.
- The 2018 High Court judgment had described the 1984 violence as crimes against humanity and directed that he remain in prison for the rest of his natural life.
- Indian Express noted the High Court had also been due to hear an appeal linked to the same riot record on the day he died.
How Two Life Terms Arrived After Thirty-Four Years
- Official Delhi figures cited in later reporting put the 1984 Sikh death count in the city at 2,733.
- Kumar resigned from the Congress after the 2018 conviction and had been a three-time Lok Sabha member from Outer Delhi.
- He was first held at Mandoli Jail and later moved to Tihar, where he spent the rest of nearly eight years in custody.
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